World Premiere: Peter Speake-Marin Immortal Dragon Piece Unique

Today we present the Peter Speake-Marin Immortal Dragon, a piece unique featuring a superbly detailed relief hand engraving by the noted (Dutch) Kees Engelbarts. The case is in platinum with diamond bezel, and the movement is the SM2 caliber decorated with model-specific engraving. Although much more a fine art or jewelry piece than something to appeal to the fans of haute horology, the movement is still one of the best designed and best finished I’ve ever seen.

As usual, all images may be clicked on for larger versions.

I’m not normally a huge fan of engraving or decorated dials, but the dark oxidized and etched areas of relief around the dragon really set it off and give the piece a magnificent sense of depth. It is almost entirely monochromatic – lacking Speake-Marin’s usual trademark blued hands – but curiously the colorlessness of the dial allows the antireflective coating on the underside of the sapphire crystal to show an occasional flash of blue, which I find inexplicably endearing. The polished hands nicely offset the otherwise textured dial components, and nicely complement the hefty platinum case; they’re also surprisingly readable. The beauty really is in the details with this piece.